Zimbabwe President Mugabe Foresees New Tasks for Africa's Spies

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe says Africa's intelligence services must prepare for fresh onslaughts by foreigners and the continent's former colonizers to grasp its natural resources.

Mugabe said Monday that Africa's vast reserves of resources and the world-wide recession have triggered a new scramble for control of its "raw wealth."

Opening a convention of the continent-wide 49-nation Committee of Intelligence and Security Services, Mugabe said outsiders have used at least 20 armed conflicts in Africa since 1990 to gather intelligence and deploy "stealth predator drones," unmanned surveillance aircraft, to spy on African countries.

He told Africa's annual meeting of security agents who work under the cloak of secrecy that they are now confronted by increasing human and drug trafficking, money laundering and cyber- terrorism.